ABSTRACT
Scenography involves 18th-century concepts of picturesque landscape design, which established complicity between architecture, ruins, and narration that also influenced modern architecture’s moral imperative. The development of picturesque landscapes in Western Europe may be traced back to Chinese and Japanese garden theory. Scenography also implicates techniques of representing and drawing in its visual sphere. It also introduces concepts of the sublime and the beautiful into the conversation. The emerging Enlightenment theory of Associationism plays a significant role in linking garden design theory to architecture’s role as a social change agent. For contemporary readings of architecture, concepts of the picturesque may be found in urban design that considers movement, cinematically derived architecture, spatial sequences, and Le Corbusier’s architectural promenade.
